A primal-dual algorithm for BSDEs

Abstract: We generalize the primal-dual methodology, which is popular in the pricing of early-exercise options, to a backward dynamic programming equation associated with time discretization schemes of (reflected) backward stochastic differential equations (BSDEs). Taking as an input some approximate solution of the backward dynamic program, which was pre-computed, e.g., by least-squares Monte Carlo, our methodology allows to construct a confidence interval for the unknown true solution of the time discretized (reflected) BSDE at time 0. We numerically demonstrate the practical applicability of our method in two five-dimensional nonlinear pricing problems where tight price bounds were previously unavailable.